Filing Information

You may not receive a notice to remind you to file your return or pay your tax so it's important to remember the return due date. For a list of due dates, see Sales Tax Return Filing Due Dates.

You must file your Sales and Use Tax return online through our e-Services system.

• Go to e-Services.
• Help for e-Services

If you have multiple locations and file a consolidated return, you can enter the information for each location separately or attach a spreadsheet file with information for all locations. See Sales and Use Tax File Formats.

You need the following information to file your Sales and Use Tax return:

• Minnesota Tax ID Number
• e-Services username and password
• Gross receipts - Total receipts (or sales) from all business operations for Minnesota during the reporting period. Include all taxable and exempt sales, leases, and rentals. Do not include sales tax.
• Amount of tax you collected for:
  • General Rate Sales Tax (state rate) - total receipts from all taxable sales, leases, and rentals subject to the general rate sales tax. Do not include sales tax or sales made through a marketplace, when the marketplace is required to collect and remit the sales tax.
  • Local sales taxes - total receipts (or sales) subject to a local tax.
  • Special rate taxes - total receipts (or sales) subject to special tax.
• Amount of tax you owe for:
  • Use tax purchases (state rate) - total amount you paid for items purchased for your own use without paying sales tax to the seller.
  • Local use taxes - total amount you paid for items purchased for your own use without paying local sales tax to the seller.
  • Variable rate use tax - When you buy items outside Minnesota, the seller may be required to charge you that state's state and local sales tax if you pick up the items there. However, you still owe use tax to Minnesota if the other state's sales tax rate is less than Minnesota's general sales tax rate. You pay the difference in the two rates as variable rate use tax.

Sales Tax Included in Price

If your total receipts include sales tax, you must subtract the sales tax before filing your return. See Subtracting Sales Tax from Receipts.

No Taxable Sales

If you did not make any taxable sales for a filing period, you must still file a zero return.

Marketplace Providers

If you are a marketplace provider report your sales, including the sales made on behalf of your marketplace sellers, on your own sales tax return. You may request an additional Minnesota Sales Tax ID Number to report the sales made on behalf of your marketplace sellers.

You may need to adjust your sales figures before filing your return. If the following items apply to sales in the current period, subtract them from the appropriate tax type before you file.

• Bad debts on sales previously written off for federal income tax purposes.
• Cash or credit refunds given to customers. For example, if a customer returns an item subject to Minnesota and local sales tax, adjust both the state and local tax lines.
• Checks returned for nonsufficient funds (if you use the cash method of accounting).

Note: If your return shows a credit balance because of the adjustment, we will refund the overpayment to you. Do not take credit for the overpayment on other returns.

The Minnesota Department of Revenue accepts Simplified Electronic Returns (SER) filed through our webservice from all taxpayers.

To file a SER, you must use the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) Schema set.

For more information, see the SST Technology Guide.

File SER with Minnesota

When you are ready to file a SER with Minnesota, you must:

• Obtain login credentials
• Certify or test submissions before transmitting your first SER
• Use our testing and production URLs:
  • Testing URL
  • Production URL

For credentials and testing information, email SERCredentialsandTesting@state.mn.us.

You may use a SER to submit both Sales and Use Tax returns and payments.

• Currently, Minnesota does not require page 2 of the SST Schema
• When including payment, we advise including a request date
   

Note: We do not provide programming support to file SERs.

Cash Method

You are on the cash method of accounting when:

• You report income and your sales tax liability when you receive payments from your customer.
• You record expenses and any associated use tax in the period you pay the invoice.

Accrual Method

You are on the accrual method of accounting when:

• You report income and your sales tax liability when you make the sale to your customer (invoice date).
• You record expenses and any associated use tax in the period you made the purchases (invoice date).

If you do not file or pay your taxes on time, you may owe penalties and interest.

We will send you a notice if we do not receive your return or payment. If you have questions or believe we made an error, call us immediately. We will work with you to get your account current.

For more information, see Penalty and Interest for Business Taxes.